F&S Style Guide

F&S Style Guide

Citation Style

The Femme Salée Art Journal is copyedited using Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition as a base style guide, available at www.chicagomanualofstyle.org. All footnotes, bibliography, artwork titles, exhibitions, etc. must use this style guide.

The primary dictionary used for spelling and hyphenation decisions is www.oxforddictionaries.com/ pro US edition, and the secondary dictionary is Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition. 

Punctuation & Grammar

  • Subjunctive used
  • Oxford comma used
  • Keep semicolons at a minimum
  • Ellipses . . . non-breaking space between each point, as well as space before and after ellipses except when next to other punctuation
  • A comma before “etc.” in a list  (E.g. “Item one, item two, item three, etc.”)
  • Em dashes—for interruptions and parenthetical phrases, no space either side.
  • Capitalize named buildings; use lower case for generic terms:
    • The River Thames; they walked along the river.
  • Songs take quotation marks; albums take italic:
    • “Box of Rain” from the album American Beauty.
  • Magazine and book titles take italic; chapter titles take quotation marks:
    • Chapter 2, “The Long Walk Home,” in A Trip of a Lifetime.
  • US English punctuation rules, e.g. double-quotation marks for primary quotations, single quotation marks for internal quotations (for example, “The source spoke to me, saying ‘do it this way’ instead of what I originally thought it should be.”)

Style Rules for Numbers

Most numbers are spelled out, except for the following:

    • Numbers 101 and above, excluding two-digit numbers followed by thousands, millions, etc. (e.g. 2,204, but twenty-two thousand), and no superscript with ordinals (101st, not 101st),
    • House and room numbers in an address,
    • Phone numbers as 555-555-5555, 
    • Times that include hour and minute, but spell out the hour, quarter, and half hour (2:33 a.m. and 2:45 in the morning, but two thirty a.m., two fifteen in the morning, two o’clock),
    • Years (1985), but spell out decades (the eighties),
    • Scores or numbers within a range (with no spaces on either side of en dash, not a hyphen),
  • Other common exceptions: 24/7, 4.0 GPA, 9/11 (recognizable date), 9-1-1 (emergency phone number w/ hyphens), and highway numbers.

Language Style

    • Regional spelling choice: US English (e.g. color, curb, behavior, organization)
    • If you choose to include profanity or made-up words, please ensure that it is appropriately quoted or explained (within the text or in a footnote)
    • Narrative tense: third person and first person accepted, please avoid using “we” or “us” unless you are specifically talking about a group you are a part of
    • When using e.g. or i.e. make sure you know the difference between the two and use appropriately (e.g. = for example, i.e. = that is)
    • Possessives: 
    • Single possession: an “apostrophe” and “s” are generally used with personal names ending in an s, x, or z sound, as long as pronunciation isn’t hampered:
    • Louise’s dog,
    • Marx’s treatise,
    • James’s essay,
    • John Davies’ car,
    • John Davy’s car,
    • Plural possession: use an apostrophe alone after the name or word (unless it doesn’t end with an s):
    • The Patels’ house (where Mr. Patel and his daughter live),
    • Women’s rights,
    • People’s thoughts on the matter,
  • The houses’ front gardens.

Citing Artwork, Performance Art, Exhibitions, etc.

Paintings, Statues, etc. and Exhibition Titles should be italicized:

  • Rothko’s Orange Yellow Orange
  • Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
  • The Denver Art Museum has a new exhibition, Nature as Muse. 

Quick list of CMS sections:

  • Interviews and Personal Communications, 14.218-14.222
  • Theses and Dissertations, 14.224-14.226
  • Audiovisual Materials, 14.274-14.280

Artists and Art Movements

When referring to artists or authors, use their full name upon first mention, and then refer to them by last name only, unless the artist has specifically requested an alternate form of identification. 

Pronouns: use the same terms that the artist does to self-identify. This also applies to abled language. 

Art movements are capitalized when referring to a specific movement or period of time, but lowercase when used in a more general or descriptive sense.

  • Ex: Monet was one of the first Impressionist artists. 
  • Ex: She paints in an impressionistic style. 

Images

All essays must include at least two images. Please make sure images are at least 1500 x 2000 pixels. If images are taken from the Internet, please make sure to include the proper citation:

  • In essay: (Figure 1) at end of the sentence before the period. 
  • Image citation under image: Fig. 1. Artist’s name, Title of Work, date, medium, dimensions. Collection or Museum name or Artist website, city, state/country. Copyright/image rights/photo credit.